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Little Bee

Average rating: 4/5

Based on 79 ratings

Rate this

Little Bee

by Chris Cleave

Doubleday Canada | August 25, 2009 | Trade Paperback

Sarah Summers is enjoying a holiday on a Nigerian beach when a young girl named Little Bee crashes irrevocably into her life. All it takes is a brief and horrifying moment of crisis - a terrifying scene that no reader will forget. Afterwards, Sarah and Little Bee might expect never to see each other again. But Little Bee finds Sarah's husband's wallet in the sand, and smuggles herself on board a cargo vessel with his address in mind. She spends two years in detention in England before making her way to Sarah's house, with what will prove to be devastating timing.

Chapter by chapter, alternating between Little Bee's voice and Sarah's, Chris Cleave wholly and caringly portrays two very different women trying to cope with events they'd never imagined. Little Bee is experiencing all the fullness and emptiness of the rich world for the first time, and her observations are hopeful, charming and piercing: "Most days I wish I was a British pound coin instead of an African girl," she says: "Everyone would be pleased to see me coming."

Sarah is more cynical and disheartened, a successful magazine editor trying to find meaning in the face of turmoil at home and work. As the story develops, however, we learn about what matters most to her, including her fierce, protective love for her funny little son ("From the Spring of 2007 until the end of that long summer when Little Bee came to live with us," Sarah says, "my son removed his Batman costume only at bathtimes."). Sarah is trying to find herself as much as Little Bee is - and, unexpectedly, each character discovers a ray of hope in the other.

What follows when Little Bee comes back into Sarah's life is a powerful story of reconciliation and healing, but it is mixed in with a generous helping of satire about the daily difficulties of modern life. This is a novel about important issues, from refugee policy to the devastating effects of violence, but more than that, it does something only great fiction can: Little Bee teaches us what it is like to live through experiences most of us think of only as far off disasters in the news.

As ever, the author says it best: "It's an uplifting, thrilling, universal human story, and I just worked to keep it simple. One brave African girl; one brave Western woman. What if one just turned up on the other's doorstep one misty morning and asked, Can you help? And what if that help wasn't just a one-way street?"

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Reviews

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?

    Rating: 5/5

    Little Bee

    Lisa Newman

    6 weeks ago

    Amazing story about two women with an interesting connection. To me, this is a book that really made me think about what is important in life. It is sad so be prepared!

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?

    Rating: 4/5

    Captivating!!

    Louise Jolly

    12 months ago

    Wow, I don't quite know how to go about reviewing this book as the publishers don't want to give away any of the story. There isn't even a synopsis of the novel on the book cover or inside the book!! So...I suppose I'll say that I was completely pulled into the story by 'Little Bee', a sixteen-year-old 'orphan' from Nigeria. Little Bee is one of two narrators, the other being Sarah who lives in England and is helping Little Bee.

    I found the voices of Little Bee and Sarah captivating and couldn't see my way clear to even put the novel down until it was done. Now, I wish I hadn't read so quickly as I want to go back now and hear their voices again.

    This was a wonderful story that was inspirational yet heartbreaking. You will come to deeply appreciate what we have in this country after reading Little Bee. You'll no longer take for granted the choices and decisions that you get to make of your own free will each day. Or, just enjoying the simple pleasures of every day life.

    Little Bee will open your eyes in ways you hadn't thought possible. Kudos to Mr. Cleave for his ingenious ability to pen a novel that digs deep into your psyche without you even realizing that it's happening. A book for everyone!

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?

    Rating: 4/5

    Thought-Provoking

    Michelle Clement

    13 months ago

    I received this book as a gift and must admit I was a little fooled by the description on the back. This book is essentially about a Nigerian refugee who finds herself in a detention center in London, gets "released" and then tells her story of how she ended up there. I'm surprised that the synopsis called this book uplifting as I found this to be a very heavy and depressing read.

    Besides being fooled by the back cover, the only other qualm I have about this book is Sara's attraction and love affair with Lawrence, as I didn't see how this had any bearing on the story. I found Lawrence's character to be weak and even a bit annoying. I was constantly wondering how Sara could be attracted to someone like him, it made me think less of her character.

    Little Bee is a very thought-provoking book. It helped to give me a better understanding of the lives of refugees and detention centers which I hadn't give much thought to before.

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?

    Rating: 3/5

    Too bookclub-friendly for its own good

    Corey Redekop

    • Author

    3 years ago

    "Cleave's sophomore effort, Little Bee, has already been released in the U.K. to resounding acclaim, and showcases his true gift at creating complex, realistic characters who are, regrettably, far stronger than the storyline they inhabit. For, despite the plaudits, Little Bee also abundantly displays what is shaping up to be Cleave's Achilles heel in his stories; the weakness of his narrative framework."

    Read the full review here: http://shelf-monkey.blogspot.com/2009/02/little-bee-by-chris-cleave-review.html

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Details

From the Publisher

Sarah Summers is enjoying a holiday on a Nigerian beach when a young girl named Little Bee crashes irrevocably into her life. All it takes is a brief and horrifying moment of crisis - a terrifying scene that no reader will forget. Afterwards, Sarah and Little Bee might expect never to see each other again. But Little Bee finds Sarah's husband's wallet in the sand, and smuggles herself on board a cargo vessel with his address in mind. She spends two years in detention in England before making her way to Sarah's house, with what will prove to be devastating timing.

Chapter by chapter, alternating between Little Bee's voice and Sarah's, Chris Cleave wholly and caringly portrays two very different women trying to cope with events they'd never imagined. Little Bee is experiencing all the fullness and emptiness of the rich world for the first time, and her observations are hopeful, charming and piercing: "Most days I wish I was a British pound coin instead of an African girl," she says: "Everyone would be pleased to see me coming."

Sarah is more cynical and disheartened, a successful magazine editor trying to find meaning in the face of turmoil at home and work. As the story develops, however, we learn about what matters most to her, including her fierce, protective love for her funny little son ("From the Spring of 2007 until the end of that long summer when Little Bee came to live with us," Sarah says, "my son removed his Batman costume only at bathtimes."). Sarah is trying to find herself as much as Little Bee is - and, unexpectedly, each character discovers a ray of hope in the other.

What follows when Little Bee comes back into Sarah's life is a powerful story of reconciliation and healing, but it is mixed in with a generous helping of satire about the daily difficulties of modern life. This is a novel about important issues, from refugee policy to the devastating effects of violence, but more than that, it does something only great fiction can: Little Bee teaches us what it is like to live through experiences most of us think of only as far off disasters in the news.

As ever, the author says it best: "It's an uplifting, thrilling, universal human story, and I just worked to keep it simple. One brave African girl; one brave Western woman. What if one just turned up on the other's doorstep one misty morning and asked, Can you help? And what if that help wasn't just a one-way street?"

From the Jacket

"A very special book indeed. Profound, deeply moving and yet light in touch, it explores the nature of loss, hope, love and identity with atrocity its backdrop. Read it and think deeply."
-The Bookseller (UK)


From the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Chris Cleave was born in London and spent his early years in Cameroon. He studied Experimental Psychology at Balliol College, Oxford, and has worked as a barman, sailor, and internet person, and now writes a column for the Guardian newspaper. His debut novel Incendiary won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award, was shortlisted for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize, won the United States Book-of-the-Month Club's First Fiction award for 2005 and is now a feature film. Chris Cleave lives in London with his wife and two children.

Bookclub Guide

1. What is the importance of names - real and assumed - in Little Bee?

2. What are Sarah and Little Bee like? Whose company do you prefer, and why?

3. What do Sarah and Little Bee learn from each other?

4. Little Bee is funny and endearing, but also full of painful events. How do the characters in this novel deal with tragedy?

5. What is the significance of Little Bee's revelation about what happened when she first arrived at Sarah and Andrew's house? How does it change your understanding of her character, and how does it affect the plot of the novel?

6. How is "growing up" an important theme in Little Bee?

7. Why did Chris Cleave choose to have the principal characters alternate as narrators? What effects does this have on the reader?

8. In what ways is Little Bee a political book? Does it offer the reader any political messages or lessons?

9. There are many stories within the book - Little Bee imagines telling her story to her friends back home, for example, and comments on the importance of a refugee possessing a credible story. In what other ways is Little Bee a story about stories and storytelling?

10. What is your favourite part of the novel, and why?

11. If you have read Chris Cleave's novel Incendiary, how do you find it similar to and different from Little Bee?

12. What are your thoughts on Lawrence's character?

13. How is Charlie's choice of superhero alter-ego important to the themes of the book?

14. How do you feel at the end of the novel?

15. Will you recommend Little Bee to your friends? Why, or why not?

Trade Paperback

288 Pages, 5.74 x 8.19 x 0.74 in

August 25, 2009

Doubleday Canada

English


0385665318
9780385665315

From Community

From the Critics

"A very special book indeed. Profound, deeply moving and yet light in touch, it explores the nature of loss, hope, love and identity with atrocity its backdrop. Read it and think deeply."
-The Bookseller (UK)

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